CU dental school drug policies get scrutiny

DENVER — The University of Colorado's dental school has changed some of its policies following questions from The Denver Post.

The school ordered five of its dentists to stop seeing patients until they receive active or academic dental licenses.

An exception to state law allowed dentists without an active Colorado license to practice at the University of Colorado Denver, but that exception was removed Aug. 5.

Until recently, CU's School of Dental Medicine in Aurora also allowed students to procure sedation drugs and write prescriptions using the federal credentials of faculty members who had not seen the patient — a potential violation of federal law.

Federal law requires doctors to have doctor-patient relationships with people for whom they write prescriptions, said Jeff Sweetin, special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration's Denver office.

The Denver Post reports that three professors and the school's dean acknowledged DEA registration numbers for at least three faculty members had been used to obtain sedation drugs and write prescriptions for patients, including instances when those dentists were not at the school.

"That's inappropriate," Dr. Denise Kassebaum, the dental school's dean, said of the way drugs and prescriptions were being dispensed, "and that's why we have changed the policy."

It is not clear how far back the practice goes at the school.

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Kassebaum said policies were changed earlier this month in the wake of questions from The Denver Post.

Kassebaum also decided that everyone working at the school must have either an active dental license or an academic dental license.

As a result, longtime faculty member Randal James, two foreign-trained dentists who have yet to obtain Colorado licenses, and two others who were on "retired" status are working to obtain necessary licenses from the Colorado Board of Dental Examiners before seeing patients again, Kassebaum said. The five dentists are still performing other duties as faculty members.

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